A proposed hydropower dam that residents fear will submerge ancestral villages has prompted violent protests in Arunachal Pradesh’s Siang Valley and the deployment of hundreds of security personnel in India’s remote northeast, Reuters reported.
Authorities told Reuters that last week’s unrest involved stone throwing and fires at a police station and an office of state-owned National Hydroelectric Power Corporation (NHPC). Police fired tear gas shells.
NHPC is expected to develop the Siang Upper Multipurpose Project, which is planned to generate 11,200 megawatts, Reuters reported. The outlet said the project is intended to counter a Chinese hydropower development upstream.
Residents from the Adi tribe oppose the proposal over fears their ancestral villages will be submerged. “27 of our ancestral villages will be completely submerged. At least 40 or 50 more will be affected,” Gegong Jijong of the Siang Indigenous Farmers’ Forum told Reuters.
Reuters reported that sporadic protests in the Siang Valley have taken place over the past two years. Arunachal Pradesh’s chief minister described the Chinese project as an existential threat and said the government would protect national interests while respecting the rights and aspirations of Siang Valley residents, Reuters reported.
